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Patrick, Esq., Lawyer

Category: California Employment Law

Satisfied Customers: 8811

Experience: Significant experience in all areas of employment law.

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My daughter has worked at walgreen part time since 5-12-2011,

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My daughter has worked at walgreen part time since 5-12-2011, beginning with 15 hours per week, now down to 5 hours a week, recently she was told that no hourfor her to work but she is stll a employee, she has to find hours at other walgreen store to work, otherwise, she wil be terminated in 60 days without hour to work, she went store by store to ask for hour to work, she was frustrated with all the " nohour" answers，I appreciate your help a few questions as follows1. What foes it mean by no hour to work ? 2. What should we do?3. What should my daughter do and able to apply for unemployment benefit? Quit the job now or wait for 60 days to ne terminated by walgreen. Thanks

Hello and thank you for entrusting me to answer your question. Im so sorry to hear about your daughter's unfortunate situation.

In the state of California, employment is presumed to be "at will" absent an agreement specifically stating to the contrary. More specifically, California Labor Code Section 2922 provides that: "employment, having no specified term, may be terminated at the will of either party on notice to the other." Assuming that an employee does not have a contract that guarantees them employment for a specified term, this means that an employer is free to promote, terminate or reduce the hours of employees as it sees fit and without reason.

When an employer says that there are "no hours to work," it simply means that the employee's hours are temporarily reduced to zero due to a lack of need for the employee to come in. This is typically not illegal for the reasons stated above.

Since there is nothing that an employee can do under these circumstances to get more hours from their employer, an employee in this circumstance has few options. If they suggested that you attempt to find hours at other branches, it would be wise to make every effort to do exactly that.

It is very important that an employee does not QUIT their job if they wish to seek unemployment benefits. One of the requirements for benefits is that an employee is unemployed through "no fault of their own." If an employee quits--even if their termination was imminent--the EDD will claim that unemployment was voluntary and will deny benefits.

A formal termination notice is not required to begin the application process to collect benefits. All that is required is a lack of work. Otherwise employers could suspend employees without terminating them and they would be forever precluded from claiming UE benefits because they didn't have a termination letter.

The basic requirements for obtaining UE benefits are the following: that you have received enough wages during the base period to establish a claim (either $1300 in one quarter of your "base period," or at least $900 in your highest quarter and total base period earnings of 1.25 times your high quarter earnings), you are physically able and available to immediately accept work, actively seeking work, and unemployed through no fault of your own.

For information on how to file for benefits, visit this link: http://www.edd.ca.gov/unemployment/filing_a_claim.htm

I sincerely XXXXX XXXXX this information helps you and I wish you the very best of luck. Bear in mind that none of the above constitutes legal advice nor is any attorney client relationship created between us.

Please abide by the honor code of this website by kindly clicking on the GREEN ACCEPT button if my answer has been helpful to you. Thank you very much.

"Do you mean she can apply unemployment benefit now due to lack of work during these 60 days waiting for termination if no hour for work"

Yes. Assuming that she otherwise meets the requirements for eligibility as described above, the fact that she has not received a formal termination notice will not preclude her from receiving benefits. All that is required is a lack of work due to no fault of her own. Also, there is no penalty for applying if benefits are denied, so there is nothing to lose by applying now.

I hope that this helps clarify my response. If my answer has been helpful, please be so kind as to "accept" it so that I may receive credit for my time and be compensated for my work.

I will tell you that...the things you have to go through to be an Expert are quite rigorous.

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